The increasing understanding of the #Matrix as a trans narrative is particularly fascinating/important to me -- the girl who wrote over 100 Matrix fanfics as a teenager, and most of them about Agent Smith, the representation of "The Man." @lilly_wachowski 1/20

What does it mean, that in this deeply queer-coded story, I, Mae Catt, mix-race teenage tomboy, gravitated towards the oppressor? Mind you, what appealed to me then and continues to appeal to me about Agent Smith was that HE WAS ALSO OPPRESSED. 2/20

So genius is the Matrix, that it makes clear what is true about our society: Even those in power are trapped by the system of control they benefit from. Toxic masculinity, for example. 3/20

The Machines had enslaved humanity, but in doing so, trapped themselves in their own cycle, wherein their entire society was dedicated to the maintenance of the Matrix. They had fought a war for freedom from humanity, but were now irreversibly tied to them. 4/20

The Machines are thus ALSO slaves to the Matrix (the system/society). This is embodied in Smith, who in the first Matrix, clearly states to Morpheus that he wants to "get out of this place (the Matrix)." 5/20

Smith's entire plan in the first Matrix is to destroy Zion, so that there won't be any more reason for Agents to exist in the Matrix (they were made only to hunt rebel humans). I've always interpreted this to mean Smith was suicidal. 6/20

"Get out of this place," in the context of the first Matrix means death. He's a computer program, there is no living outside the Matrix for him. Thus, Smith the oppressor, is so oppressed by the system he upholds, he yearns for death. 7/20

But he's SO indoctrinated by system, he can't even IMAGINE that the system should CHANGE. Rather, than destroy it, Smith wants to destroy himself. This goes back to the Matrix's narrative of "Free your mind," not just literally out of the Matrix, but figuratively -- 8/20

You have to learn to think OUTSIDE of the system/society's parameters. To quote Hickman's X-Men books, our "dreams are too small." Smith, as a machine, can't do that, and he ends up experiencing what I believe is a machine's version of a stroke/insanity. 9/20

Smith SMELLS the Matrix, while fully acknowledging smell might not EVEN BE REAL. While Smith may totally be smelling something, I think he's confusing a physical sensation for an internal feeling. Because he's a Machine who CANNOT tell the difference. 10/20

Smith is FEELING EMOTIONS, he clearly hates humanity, and given his suicidal tendencies, probably hates himself. Cause that's what living in an oppressive system does, it teaches you to self-hate rather than question the system! 11/20

Smith cannot process these emotions, not just because he's a program, but because Machine Society has not made room for someone like him to exist. There are no tools Smith can use, no living examples he can turn to. He is on his own, by design, and he's spiraling. 12/20

And like many real-world examples of (often) white boys (and men) turning to violence, Smith gives into HATE, arguably one of the simpler emotions, but certainly an emotion that would make him FEEL MORE POWERFUL, more IN CONTROL. 13/20

So by the time of the sequels, when Smith is in Exile and he's FREE, he doesn't stop to introspect, to discover and heal from his trauma -- he continues to RAGE and HATE on both humanity and machines, hellbent on destroying both. 14/20

He LITERALLY becomes the thing he accused humans of being, a virus. Because having been oppressed for so long, Smith can only self-actualized through the destruction of others, rather than the creation of himself. He never takes on a new identity, as human rebels do. 15/20

What must it mean then, when Smith says he and Neo have a CONNECTION, when the Oracle identifies Smith as Neo's shadow? They are connected, like the machines and humans are connected, literally through life and death circumstances. 16/20

But they are both victims of an oppressive society. Where Neo found freedom and love (in his found family, and Trinity), Smith continues to double down on the bad lessons he learned from the system, he is hate-filled and alone by the time of his death. 17/20

Remarkable then, that Smith's final words in the Matrix Revolutions are, "It's not fair." 18/20

Smith, embodiment of the oppressor, nigh indestructible, nigh immortal, and known for his oration, reveals his childish understanding of the world as he dies. That's what the society had reduced him to, or rather, had restricted him to. He could never be anything more. 19/20

Anyway, what does that all say about me? I don't know. I'm going to have to do some self-reflecting.

Thanks from coming to my TEDtalk. 20/20